Four takeaways from UVA lacrosse’s 11-10 2OT quarterfinal win vs Johns Hopkins (2024)

The 17th NCAA tournament meeting between Johns Hopkins and the Virginia Cavaliers was littered with bone-crushing hits and crowd-erupting goals. But it was Connor Shellenberger’s left-handed score off a roll dodge in double overtime that sent the ‘Hoos back to championship weekend and the Blue Jays packing.

“It’s the style we want to play,” head coach Lars Tiffany said. “We want to crush the ride. We want to push transition. We want to be aggressive on defense, we’re gonna go man-down a few times. It’s the game I grew up with and inherited from the Onondaga people and it’s the way we’re gonna play this game at the University of Virginia.”

Shellenberger advances legacy and has his Tewaaraton moment

Let’s start off with the best part of Sunday’s action. That was Connor Shellenberger taking complete control of Virginia’s set play with 1:44 left in double overtime to send the ‘Hoos to the final four. Seriously, who else could it have been?

Shellenberger pointed out after the game that Virginia hasn’t had an overtime victory since 2019 when they won five en route to a national championship. He even mentioned that he and Payton Cormier were talking about that earlier this week. So this was the first of both of their careers.

“I just started crying,” Shellenberger said. “I honestly couldn’t believe it, just to be a part of UVA and the tradition of the lacrosse program that I’ve been watching since I was 10, 11 years old and to have a moment like this at this venue is incredible.”

Shellenberger finished the game with three goals off 10 shots, an assist and only one turnover — however, he was penalized for two-minute-long penalties.

One question after this performance remains, is it enough for him to claim Virginia’s first Tewaaraton winner since Steele Stanwick in 2011?

Kyle Morris is the starter

Redshirt freshman goalie Kyle Morris was thrown into his first-ever NCAA tournament game less than seven minutes into the affair after Matthew Nunes was beaten on four out of the first five shots he saw. Two of those were scored by senior attackmen Russel Melendez — who had been ice cold, only scoring two goals in his last four games. The goal that got him pulled was from freshman LSM Quintan Kilrain and was his first career goal.

“There was no one else with a more positive voice [on the sideline] than Matt Nunes,” Tiffany said. “Credit to him after getting pulled… that exemplifies the type of men that we have at Virginia men’s lacrosse.”

After Morris checked in, Virginia went on a 4-1 run. At the 2:32 mark in overtime, when he hadn’t seen a shot on goal since the third quarter, he stuffed Matt Collison and made a doorstep save on Melendez to keep the Wahoos’ season alive.

After the game, Tiffany said that there were “some members of the coaching staff,” that were advocating for Morris to start this game because of his performance at practice throughout the week. This leads me to believe if I was a betting man, that Kyle Morris is Virginia’s starting goalie against Maryland.

Schutz and Cormier were notably absent

If you would’ve told me that Virgina would come out on top with zero goals from Griffin Schutz and the all-time DI leader in goals, Payton Cormier, going 1-11 in shooting I would’ve laughed in your face.

However, it turns out that Virginia can still win with that kind of offensive effort if the ‘Hoos win 16-of-26 faceoffs and dominate the ground ball battle 40-26. Schutz was neutralized by both Hopkins LSMs throughout the game, finishing with just three shots and two turnovers — including a yardsale in the middle of the field. That said, he did add two assists.

After scoring a remarkable eight goals last week, Cormier didn’t look like himself. He started off the game missing two wide-open looks on the crease. It seemed like it was going to be another day where he was going to rack up goals because he was consistently left open. However, he only managed to put the ball in the net until the fourth quarter.

I don’t doubt that he can get back on his feet by next week. But he either needs to spend a late night with a bucket of balls and a goal or a trip to the stick doctor to get back on track.

Graduate midfielder Jack Boyden did soften the blow from the lack of production out of the midfield with his first hat trick performance as a Wahoo.

McCabe Millon comes up big in the clutch

Sure McCabe Millon scored five goals vs Michigan to open up the season and scored seven points against Robert Morris. But this was his defining moment and his biggest performance since putting on a Virginia jersey. After playing the majority of his useful minutes as a midfielder last week, the freshman had three goals on top of three assists including the game-tying goal.

“These are the moments you dream of as a kid,” Millon said. “It was a new experience and it’s something cool and being able to play at this awesome venue with the chance to go to the final four was something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.”

The Baltimore native had only scored six points in his last three games, but he matched that total in today’s game for his home crowd.

This kind of momentum and confidence for the freshman, while Schutz and Cormier struggled, will be essential next weekend.

Virginia will face No. 7 seed Maryland for the fourth time in five NCAA tournaments on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the national semifinals.